An imaginative boy who frequently makes things up witnesses a murder, but can't get his parents or the police to believe him. The only people taking him seriously are the killers - who live upstairs, know that he saw what they did, and are out to permanently silence him.
Direction
Tetzlaff turns tenement hallways into nightmare mazes.
Acting
Bobby Driscoll's panic feels dangerously real.
Cinematography
Shadows swallow the city whole.
Director
Ted Tetzlaff
Bobby Driscoll
Tommy Woodry
Barbara Hale
Mary Woodry
Arthur Kennedy
Ed Woodry
Paul Stewart
Joe Kellerson
Ruth Roman
Jean Kellerson
Richard Benedict
Murdered Seaman (Uncredited)
James Nolan
Stranger on Street (Uncredited)
Anthony Ross
Detective Ross (uncredited)
Budd Fine
Police Officer (Uncredited)
Lee Phelps
Police Officer (Uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Bobby Driscoll won a special juvenile Oscar for this role, then tragically died penniless and unknown at 31.
Shot on location in a real NYC tenement; the suffocating authenticity makes studio noir look like a playground.
US
